'New York Times' Presses For Information About Net Neutrality Comments

The New York Times Company is urging a judge to order the Federal Communications Commission to disclose information about network neutrality commenters, despite the agency's objections that doing so could compromise people's privacy. “The FCC’s claims dramatically overstate the potential for harm,” the Times writes in court papers filed May 23 with the US District Court in the Southern District of New York. "The FCC both overstates the intrusion on personal privacy that may result from release of the server log and understates the public interest in release of the information,” the newspaper writes. The Times, which is investigating potential Russian meddling in the 2017 net neutrality proceeding, recently sued the FCC in an effort to uncover information about people who filed comments with the agency. The newspaper is seeking a host of data -- including users' IP addresses and time stamps -- for all public comments regarding net neutrality submitted between April 26, 2017 and June 7, 2017.  The FCC has argued it can't divulge data about commenters' IP addresses without compromising people's privacy.